Chapter 63

The ordeal of interviewing a house-sitter or coming up with a referenced short term lessee for her house had taken much more time than Shelley had wanted to spend and at 8 o'clock on Thursday night when the last reference of a possible lessee fell through she decided to give up any ideas of either for the time being.

She had hoped to be lying underneath Slim in a pool of sweat by this time and she was no more close to that than she was to making sure her house was secure. As much as she wanted to do this "on her own", she was going to have to rely on Joe Johnson and his connections. She stowed her car in the garage and safely locked and secured that building with security system set. She bagged up all the perishables in her home and dumped them in the container she had rented for construction debris on the side of her home. The street permit for that eyesore was running out on Monday and the company was coming Friday afternoon to take it away. It was only half full with the old shingles from the house and garage roofs, as well as the rotten shed they had torn down. She managed to fill it to almost two-thirds with junk she had bothered to move from San Diego as well as many connections to bad memories of her past. The tragedies of her life were in there as well, as far as she was concerned. Manhattan with Slim would be the beginning of a happy, contented life. It was what she dreamed of one day with Joe Johnson, but then had been rendered from her life by her sisters' stroke and death. Now that idyllic forecast seemed even brighter with Slim, whom made her happier than she thought possible.

Slim was disappointed, but understanding when she called and said she wouldn't be in New York on Thursday as planned. She instead would train in Friday morning and go right to The Four Seasons to fill out paperwork and begin an employee orientation before she took her place behind the bar at 3 o'clock. Frederic Mocedade would be with her the entire time to walk her through the paces and familiarize her with his management style. They had talked on the phone extensively a few times to allay her fears of coming in as an outsider. Frederic was a stern taskmaster when it came to business and knew when to let that force-field down to mingle and be social with this staff so as to see him as a person. His authority was never challenged and the numbers he put up made him a favorite of upper management. After speaking with him Shelley was sure this would be well within her capabilities. Learning Frederic's way of doing things and taking the baton would be the hard part and once she was in stride she could modify things to her liking. The first thing she had to do was establish herself as being "in charge" to easily take over. Frederic had already discussed with her about coming in cold as an outsider but he did let her know that there was no "heir apparent" on his staff. He had already told them he was retiring and a manager from another hotel chain would become their new supervisor and bar manager over the coming months. He felt it was important that she do her time at the bar on a daily basis sharing all duties to show others on her staff that she was not a prima-donna and capable.

The one thing that tempered her whirlwind Friday forecast was that at the end of it she would be with Slim, sleeping in his bed and they would consummate their relationship.

Selena woke on Friday like a child on Easter morning ready to search for the goodies that the day promised. Nothing bad could come from the day because by days end she would be home in their bed with the promise of friends and family for a couple days. It was a battery recharge she needed. She even looked forward to the lovemaking that would take place because it always seemed to have a different edge under the roof where she lost most of her sexual innocence.

After downing a cup of coffee she seldom brewed in the morning she slipped on her heels and was putting on her earrings as she clicked her way through the bedroom to the bath to look at herself in the full length mirror. Normally she wouldn't make this kind of racket, but Joe wanted to be awakened on her leaving so he could begin packing and getting the car ready for their trip. It was the reason she brewed coffee today, to let him fill his lungs with that special aroma to wake him up. However, as he fluttered his eyes open and saw her click past the bed with her red dress swishing with the movement of her body it was all the wakening he needed.

"My God, your ass is simply incredible in that dress. The way it moves has got ME interested, are you sure you want to wear it to work?... especially with no pantyhose!" Joe said leaning up on one elbow and watching her preen in front of the mirror.

"Ohh Joe, it's going to be nice out today. I'll change out of the thong and put on panties if you think I'm indecent. But, I wear panty hose all fall and winter. My legs are still nice and tanned and I'm going home tonight and I want to feel fresh. Pantyhose make me feel like I'm wearing long undies." She said taking his words to heart, but not worried about what she might cause by being so free in such a provocative dress.

Selena finished her hair in the mirror and slipped her hands under dress and shucked down her little thong and stepped out of it. She put it in the hamper and looked at Joe shaking her head while smiling as she walked to her dresser and pulled a pair of red full bottom panties from it. She carefully fit one leg over her heel and then the other pulling them up and adjusting them while Joe watched intently.

"I may ask you to change those every morning just to get the show. Just when I think you can't excite me any more you..." He started before she interrupted.

"If you want to make love to me in this dress you'll have to wait so save the sweet talk for later. I have to go to work, you have to pack." She said as she went to the bed and bent to kiss him goodbye.

Joe ran his hand up her leg and squeezed the roundness of her ass as she gripped his package through the sheet whispering, "How about over the arm of the sofa as soon as we get off the elevator tonight? You can fuck me silly, I'd like that."

Joe smiled big and gave her ass an extra squeeze.

"That's a promise that's sure to get me through the day." Joe said as she pulled away and took her tan knee length coat from her dressing chair and put it on, tying the belt in the front.

"Call me later if you want to go straight from work. I can travel in these clothes comfortably." She called out as she went out the door.

Joe shook his head to himself, still not quite believing how much in love he was with his fair Selena. Almost without fail each time he saw her in a new outfit he fell in love with her perfect body again. Being in love with her mind and spirit, plus knowing how much she loved him, made the whole package so perfect for both of them.

Selena was taking full advantage of her mood and the early summer-like day of the first week of autumn. With "sunny and 75" predicted for later in the day she wore the summery red dress to feel like a spring flower. She strode up the avenue and turned the corner passing subway portholes to get more into the hubbub of commuters to feel safer. After a 2 block jaunt she was heading down a tunnel with 7 other commuters headed to the N train and get off at the Lex and 59th station. She often ran into Alexis either at the station or on the walk from it. She was anxious to hear if there were any comments on her audition.

As was usual there were stare's on the train from other business men and women, not quite sure they knew where they saw the face before. Plus there was the occasional leer and wink from young confident men who probably made a social calendar from the women they met on the trains. Although not comfortable with any of this, Selena took it more easily in the a.m. than the p.m. During her afternoon solo train rides she felt genuinely unsafe and unsure thinking an attacker would go less unnoticed in the thicker afternoon throng.

Rushing from the train at her station and up the escalator to the street she couldn't wait to get to the fresher air and smell of the morning city. It was but a block and the turn of a corner to the WSGG brownstone front from the station. The thought of the smell of coffee brewing on opening the door to the office put a bounce in her step as she turned the corner and saw Ross Curran coming from the other direction. She was about to smile and acknowledge him when she heard a call from behind her.

"Well if it isn't Wally Pipp!"

Selena turned and saw Alexis and looked at her quizzically.

"Wally who?"

Alexis laughed out loud and gave her friend an air kiss and hug.

"It's a baseball reference I got from my Dad but I thought it was pretty universal. Actually I'm the one who should be Wally Pipp. He didn't feel well one day and the Yankees put Lou Gehrig into the line-up and he played two thousand something straight games. You did great last night. Manny raved about you to the point where I told him I was worried you would steal my gig." Alexis bubbled. "I told you it was easy and you could handle it!"

"Don't worry. Even if they do offer me something, I couldn't do an everyday thing like you have and I don't even have clearance from my group. You're quite safe from me, I think." Selena told her, even though she was excited as she began to feel the ego rush.

"God Selena, I have a year left on my contract and we have a year extension on the table. They just want to tie you up so someone else doesn't grab you." Alexis explained.

"Tell them they have nothing to worry about. I'm not pursuing a career, but filling in from time to time might be fun as long as it's right there by our apartment. I have to talk to my partners about it anyway. I'll try to do that before they make me an offer."

"Well, I have to get going. Lunch today? You going to have time?" Alexis asked.

"Unless the dollar fails or something I definitely want to take advantage of these last nice days. I'll meet you at the counter." Selena said as she rushed along and up the steps to be buzzed in by Deneigh.

"Good morning Miss Hanson, you have a call to return. The gentleman has called twice in the last 10 minutes." Deneigh said pushing a note across the of the reception counter.

"Good morning Miss Myersen and thank you."

Selena took the note and looked at the number; almost sure that it didn't ring a bell.

She quickly got settled into her office and skipped her usual turn at the coffee pot to pore over the phone number. She noted it was a San Diego area code remembering Shelley's vitals off her customer profile. That would make it before 6 a.m. there making her wonder how important the call may be. Against her usual regimen on cold calls, she dialed the number after protecting her phone ID.

"Hello?" She heard an unfamiliar voice answer.

"Who am I speaking to?"

"Miss Hanson?"

"That's who I am. Who is this?"

"My name is Dale Gaiters. I work for Galaxy Pharmaceutical Solutions Technologies. Did you see 20/20 last night?"

"What is this about and why are you calling WSGG?"

"Did you see it?"

"Listen I am a busy woman and I don't have time for games. You have about 30 seconds to make a point. I saw the long segment on the UBScots failure and prop up. What of it?" She asked worried it was a customer who felt he should have gotten a heads-up call.

"I'm referring to the story that followed it on our Brocadium."

"I didn't see it; I got involved in a discussion on the foreign banking situation." She recalled having a long discussion with Joe.

"Let me give you a brief synopsis, just give me a chance here, please. They had ex-Galaxy people and FDA testers on there saying the drug is basically a product of junk science. After spending 380 million dollars and 4 years of production they got to human study tests last year and of 4850 regular dosers over half got sick and showed an effective rate of only 8%. This morning our stock is going to hell and good people are going to lose their jobs for leaking information and supposedly falsifying early test records. All in all investors who trusted us are going to sell off and affect any studies we have going here and the world will be cheated from things we have developing here, including many, many positive cancer studies."

"OK, Mr. Gaiters make your point. You've used your thirty seconds and tell me what Brocadium is supposed to do." Selena asked losing her patience.

"Brocadium allows the body to tolerate anti-cancer drugs, especially the new generation of those drugs. We have drugs that work better than any ever developed, but they made you so sick and taxed the heart, kidneys and liver to the point that patients were dying from side effects far sooner than their probable prognosis. THE TESTS WERE FLAWED, THE SUBJECT SELECTION WAS SKEWED. Only TEN percent of dosers were prime candidates and they got the real true dose. Most all of the others got nocebo's, something that was supposed to make them sick. Less that FIVE percent got real placebo. Someone here is holding back some funding and will redirect it this week in the wake of the story and in the 18 months they have to wait for re-testing they will be able to double the price. In the meantime many will suffer and die and die needlessly. They know it works NOW. If only ten percent got the real drug in its real dose and eight percent had the predicted results this drug is ready and can change lives in weeks, not years."

"OK, IF this is true, how does it involve me?"

"Investors are going to run away from Galaxy and garbage pickers are going to pick up the slack at a bargain price. This will all be inside deals with an employee group trying to take over ownership with profit-sharing options. I don't know the details of how all of this happens, but your subscribers hold huge amounts of Galaxy stock. Don't ask me how I know that, but I do. I have to go. I'm resigning today and getting out of the country. I know way too much to hang around, but if you do a little homework you'll see everything I've said is plausible, but I know you only have my word that it's true. I don't give a shit about the money, I just want our drug to start helping people who can be cured, but as with any problem, fix the money and fix the problem. Just follow the money."

And with that, the line clicked dead leaving Selena holding the dead phone to her ear.

"Mr. Gaiters, are you there?" She asked already knowing that the line was dead.

Selena sat back in her chair.

"What just happened?" She asked herself.

She bolted up in her seat quickly and woke her computer and tapped in her password and went into the mainframe with an inquiry for GPST in subscriber folios and sure enough there were lots of hits. It was probably way too late to warn investors to get out if they hadn't seen the TV expose. However if the caller was right in his accusations, it might be better to hold on for the long run., but the legalities of the whole mess really got to her. For once she was flummoxed as to where to turn. She knew Charlie Ford had connections at the SEC and seemed to know someone everywhere. She sprang to her feet and went to his door and knocked lightly and slipped in.

"Selena, you look troubled." Charlie said, dropping formality once the door was closed.

"I just got a phone call," She explained, "And maybe it's my naivete but I have a feeling it's on the level but I just don't where to run with this one."

Selena went on to explain the entire call as best as she remembered leaving Charlie to sit back and smile a little.

"What is it that makes you think this might be true and what reason might he be calling you?" He asked.

"He knew my name from television news, he knew WSGG by reputation, he knew we must have connections with the SEC, and he knew Galaxy showed up in over 30 percent of the folios. That's an unusually large percentage for a non-blue chip which tends to make me think he didn't pick me or us out of mid-air." Selena pointed out tapping her index finger to each finger on her other hand as she made the point.

"Why didn't he call the Securities Exchange Commission, the FBI or some other authority?" Charlie wondered.

Selena paused and began to turn away and go back to her office when she was struck and turned back holding the four fingers out she made points with and unfolded her thumb and tapped it hard with her other forefinger.

"HE WAS FOLLOWING THE MONEY!" She exclaimed.

"I don't know Selena, we're taking the word of someone we don't know who might be scamming us. A lot of information could have been gleaned from the 20/20 show last night."

"Charlie, there was just something in his voice that made me think he was on the level."

"But how deep would the charade have to go, to skew the testing supervised by the FDA?" Charlie said wanting to dismiss the whole thing, but whatever it was that told Selena to pursue this was bothering him. She was too smart to scam so easily.

Charlie put his palms together and tapped his fingers together in front of him, alternately rubbing his fingertips together with his eyes fixed on a spot behind his hands on his desk. It was a nervous tick he was familiar with when he was skeptical of a commitment.

He sprung back in his chair and stood, grabbing the phone.

"Let's call a conference and tell everyone, someone may know someone who can verify a few things." He said as he picked up his phone and pushed a page for Deneigh.

"Miss Myersen, could you call a group for me, in five?"

"Selena, don't get hurt feelings if the group decides we're sticking our nose where it doesn't belong, or thinks you have been taken in. Your passion has convinced me that it's worth a look-see." Charlie said as he got up and opened the door for her.

Five minutes later The Six plus Deneigh and Slim were listening to Selena tell the story of the phone call as she had told Charles Ford. Upon completion of her mental transcription of the phone event she looked around the room before saying, "There was a certain decisiveness and maybe a fear in his voice that just made the distress of his situation seem real to me. I open the floor..."

The entire group fell silent for a few minutes and Selena was waiting for the group to laugh at her and call her a rube, until Ross Curran spoke up.

"Dale Gaiters is a medical research scientist and doctor who sits on the board for an Oncology-Hematology study group my wife and I volunteer for through contributions by WSGG. He speaks about inroads being made in cancer research in front of large business groups to raise money for aftercare as well as prevention. I don't really know him personally, but I've introduced him before groups and I know he studies and does research for Galaxy. It doesn't mean it's him, but the name is not fictional, for sure."

"Very quickly here, is the short story of all this that they may have a drug or treatment that works, but as with many other cancer drugs it makes you so sick that it might be worse than the cancer... and they've come up with a another drug that makes it all tolerable, thus improving any patients chances... but after initial testing when it was sent to the FDA the specimens were fixed to make the drug and research seem wasted along with lots of investors money... then when the price of the stock plunges employees will prop up the company with profit sharing or the like and an inside group will reap huge profits... is that the basic gist?" Willis Menard asked in broken sentences as he put a mental outline from his head into words.

"Ummm, that's about what I got from the phone conversation Mr. Menard. He intimated that a breakthrough drug was close for some cancers, but it had severe side effects. But, this Brocadium negated those side effects as well as many of the other side effects from other cancer drugs. Some of that wasn't specific, but was implied." Selena told him.

John Branniff leaned forward adding, "I didn't pay entire close attention to the story last night, ahh... about just what this Brocadium was supposed to do, but nullifying the sickness was talked about. The one point stressed was how miserably it had failed in FDA testing and how much money was spent to get eight percent positive results."

"Galaxy gave the FDA almost 5000 dosing plans and only ten percent were legit? If that's true someone inside the FDA was in on everything. This goes high, real high. No wonder he wants to leave the country." Slim added.

J. Trace Fountain stood and took the bull by the horns.

"Do we have safe connections at any of these places, the FDA, Galaxy? If we don't maybe we should just walk away. If we do, let's do a "little" investigating. We aren't the FBI here and our mission is to protect the investments of our subscribers; once this show aired last night there is little we can tell them to help anyone."

"Somewhere there is a telephone record of this guys call to us. If his story is on the level and investigation ensues, we have become part of it. You all realize that don't you?" Deneigh piped in. Trace looked off into space for an answer and then settled his eyes on Ross Curran.

"Mr. Curran, why don't you try contacting this Gaiters fellow through the charity you met him through? Since we actively support the group it wouldn't be out of line to want to speak to him. This might be the most prudent, and probably the only way we might talk to him."

Every eye in the room went to Ross Curran who was already nodding his head in agreement.

"This is something that, all in all, we shouldn't get involved with. However, that doesn't mean we are above the responsibility of blowing the whistle. First though I will try to talk with Doctor Gaiters to be sure the call was legit in the first place. In any event I think we should make an entire report to the SEC of the phone call and this meeting, plus any subsequent conversations I have with the doctor. Any of our customers who were invested in Galaxy have already lost their money. Those who are fully diversified will survive and hold onto a good tech stock like Galaxy. If there is a plot to plunge the stock in hopes of scooping up the scraps and making an employee takeover at a bargain price I think they have erred greatly. I would guess most of those heavily invested there can take a punch. Let me ask each of you to use any contacts you have and sniff around a bit. Lets meet together again at 3 o'clock and if I can arrange it I will have an SEC agent here to listen to what we know. That should divest us of any responsibility. Can we all agree to this and do you give me proxy to speak for WSGG? Yea or... nay?"